Compressor not working.

[Alexandstein]

Our compressor seems to not be functioning properly. If we just apply a power source straight to the compressor it functions fine. We checked the programming and it seems fine. (Begin: Open Compressor(DIO-1, Relay-1)->Start->Devref) When we try to run the code on the robot and then enable it, the compressor fails to run each time. We tried to replace the Spike attached to the relay and compressor but nothing happened.
Any help with setting up the compressor?
Thanks a lot!

[Tom Line]

Do you have the nason pressure switch wired to your control system?

[Alexandstein]

Yup!

[Joe Ross]

What does the dashboard show for the state of the pressure switch and the relay?

[Mark McLeod]

Ah, troubleshooting, isn't it fun?
Let's see:

Operation:

• Are all your Driver Station status lights showing green?
• Robot Enabled?
• RSL steady-on with a brief occasional blink?
• Any status messages on the Diagnostic tab?

Hardware:

• Is everything wired like this nice LabVIEW diagram demonstrates? (Taken from the front panel of the Solenoid with Compressor Example.)
• Are the three Digital Sidecar voltage status lights glowing brightly?
• Is the Spike status light on?

Software:

• Try running the Solenoid with Compressor Example from the Developer Account as a working baseline
• Are you using the Driver Station application from the Developer account? (Make sure you've exited the Driver account altogether.)
• How are you running your code-"Run as startup" or "Run" from Robot Main?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Assuming you have checked everything else, have you replaced the fuse in the Spike with a 20 amp circuit breaker? The start current for the compressor is 25 amps and guaranteed to blow the supplied fuse. It is possible you have blown the fuse in each Spike you have tried. It is easy to see if you pull the fuse out and hold up to the light or use a continuity checker.

[Charles Wensel]

It sounds like you may be giving the spike a PWM signal. Spikes do not take a standard PWM signal, even though they do use a PWM cable. Standard PWM is ground, power, signal - Spikes take ground, signal, signal. The Spike may be seeing your power as a signal. Try clipping the middle wire of the PWM cable to get rid of the power and see if that fixes your problem.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Charles Wensel

Try clipping the middle wire of the PWM cable to get rid of the power and see if that fixes your problem.

There is no reason to do this.

If you are feeding the Spike a PWM signal the correct fix would be to move it to the Relay port on the Digital Sidecar, not to clip one of the wires.

[Alexandstein]

Never mind, problem solved! The terminal on the Spike leading to the board were faulty. I replaced the Spike and correctly plugged the wires in. It was just a Spike problem!
Thanks for all of the help everyone!

[rsegrest]

"Are you using the Driver Station application from the Developer account? (Make sure you've exited the Driver account altogether."

Question: How can you run the DS app from the Developer account? We haven't figured out how to do that yet and are trying to debug spike/compressor issues...

Thanks

[apalrd]

When you install the updates, the Driver Station updater also installs Driver Station for you to run on a different computer. If you are developing on the Classmate, I suggest you don't. The screen is far to small to see anything with and the tiny keys cause many problems. You can run the Driver Station update on your development PC to install Driver Station, so you can run it from your developer PC.

[rsegrest]

Originally Posted by apalrd

When you install the updates, the Driver Station updater also installs Driver Station for you to run on a different computer. If you are developing on the Classmate, I suggest you don't. The screen is far to small to see anything with and the tiny keys cause many problems. You can run the Driver Station update on your development PC to install Driver Station, so you can run it from your developer PC.

We are actually developing from the Classmate (ugh) because we have never been able to get LabView to transfer code successfully. However I completely agree with you about the issues with the classmate. My question is that McLeod said you could run the DS from the Developer account (I am assuming he meant on the classmate) and my question is how?

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by rsegrest

We are actually developing from the Classmate (ugh) because we have never been able to get LabView to transfer code successfully. However I completely agree with you about the issues with the classmate. My question is that McLeod said you could run the DS from the Developer account (I am assuming he meant on the classmate) and my question is how?

I believe it should be on the Start Menu as FRC Driver Station (I don't have the Classmate in front of me, but this is how it shows up on my PC after installing it using the update).

EDIT: Make sure to exit or log off of the Driver account when running the DS from the Developer account. Using Fast User Switching instead will result in problems that may cause you massive headaches trying to track down.

[Mark McLeod]

On the Developer account you'll find it under Windows Start -> All Programs -> FRC Driver Station

I nailed it onto the Start Menu

[apalrd]

Same way you run it on any other PC. It has an installer (the DS update) just like any other program, and sits itself in your start menu like any other program. If you can't find it, the file itself is in C:\Program Files\FRC DriverStation\DriverStation.exe

You say you have issues transferring LV code? You can develop completely on your dev laptop, build, and download code from there without ever moving the code. As long as you keep all of the files in the same directory and have them all in your project, you should be fine transferring them anyway.

EDIT: Mark and Kevin got there first.